Tuesday 10 July 2007 20.49 EDT
First published on Tuesday 10 July 2007 20.49 EDT

Jose Mourinho last night reacted to a summer of lavish spending by Manchester United and Liverpool, which contrasts pointedly with his own modest outlay in the transfer market, by suggesting the pressure will be on Chelsea's rival clubs to prove their pedigree when the Premiership returns next month.

The Portuguese, who took his squad's first pre-season training session at the UCLA campus yesterday, has seen United spend some £50m on Anderson, Nani and Owen Hargreaves, with Carlos Tevez likely to join the new arrivals at Old Trafford as they attempt to retain the title. Liverpool, meanwhile, could take their own spending to a similar level should they secure Ryan Babel and following the club-record £25.6m purchase of Fernando Torres from Atlético Madrid and yesterday's £5m signing of Yossi Benayoun, whereas the only fee Chelsea have paid was £13.5m for Florent Malouda from Lyon.

"Every club does its own analysis of the market and their needs," said Mourinho, whose three other new players to date have been secured on free transfers. "What other clubs do is something that we don't control, we don't want to control. We don't comment, we don't want to comment. But we know that in the previous three seasons when we spent some millions, everybody pointed at us as the team with more 'responsibility' because we were the big spenders in the market. That's not the case this season.

"The only player we've bought was Malouda. We are very happy with that. Steve Sidwell has a value, Tal Ben Haim has a value, Claudio Pizarro has a value. It shows that we did our homework well during the season and we knew where the targets were. I want to make it very clear that the reason why they're here is because they're good players, not because they were free transfers."

The Chelsea manager insisted that his squad boasts the quality to regain the title they surrendered to United last season, and it will soon be joined by Alex after two years at PSV Eindhoven. The defender, currently at the Copa América with Brazil, said last night: "I will be joining Chelsea after a short holiday. The manager wants me and I want to play for him."

The arrivals are counterbalanced only by the departures of Geremi to Newcastle and, imminently, Khalid Boulahrouz to Sevilla. Mourinho will resist allowing the Holland winger Arjen Robben to follow them out of Stamford Bridge, despite the 23-year-old admitting yesterday that talks over a new contract have reached an impasse, with the player flattered by persistent interest from Real Madrid.

Robben, a £12m signing from PSV three years ago, has two years to run on his £85,000-a-week deal, with Chelsea having offered a new five-year contract. But talks between the club and the midfielder's father and agent, Hans, have not progressed smoothly. Asked whether he expected to be at the club when the Champions League starts in September, he said: "That is a long way away. I'm happy where I am now. I travelled here and I'm really happy to be back after seven weeks off, starting afresh. I think I will start the season as a Chelsea player.

"I haven't signed a new contract yet, and it hasn't really gone very well. But we will see what the future brings, I really don't know. As for the interest from other clubs, for any player it's always good if there's interest from any big club. It shows you're a good player and I see that as a compliment. The same as when I was at PSV and Chelsea expressed an interest in me."

Asked if anyone else was likely to leave before the new season, Mourinho replied: "I don't think so, but you never know. The market is open, but I want to make it very clear on Arjen. The fact that we signed Malouda is not to open the door for him to leave. I'd love to keep them both, and I'd like to keep Arjen. Chelsea are negotiating with him over a new contract. Hopefully we can do it. Our team, our squad is almost the same. Why? Because it's good.

"We trust and we know the success we've had in the last three seasons with this group. If last season was not the perfect season in terms of the results we had, you know the [injury] problems we had. The squad worked well and we believe in them. You are not interested in what the other teams spend. We know what we want and we trust the squad we have."